John East. Shout out. Legendary service.

[NancyJohnson]

If you know me, you'll know that I've tended to convert my passive basses to active via the addition of John East circuits; I reckon I'll installed maybe ten Uni-Pres in total (not all mine).

 

About three years ago I put a Uni-Pre 3 in one of my Lulls (the JAX/NRT); the installation wasn't that straightforward to be honest, just problematic.  John and I had a loooong conversation over the phone; he gave me a diagnosis that proved 100% correct (it was unrelated to the Uni-Pre and was actually a ground-wire issue on one of the pickups) and I fired up the soldering iron and repaired it while we were speaking.  

 

Oddly, the bass itself was generally fine, there was an intermittent issue where if I fiddled with the stacked mid controls too much the bass would make a noise not dissimilar to a theremin until I tapped the mid-pot a few times.  Given the reliability issues, I tended to lean on other basses and left the Lull at home, thinking that at some point I'd just get another Uni-Pre and just swap it out.  I decided to give John a shout.  We exchanged emails, he advised me to take the mid-pot out of the circuit (there's a little jumper that allows this), remove it and send it off to him.  I did this and a couple of days later I got the pot back (with a clean bill of health) and a new wiring loom.  All fitted.  Fantastic.  I'd wager the bass actually sounds a little different too.

 

I'd just like to convey that John's customer service here is off the chart.  Legendary.  I really have no doubt that had the issue been with one of the bigger manufacturers (ie EMG/Aguilar), I wouldn't even have got a reply from their service teams given the age of the part, but John seems to thrive on this stuff.  He's all over Talkbass threads.

 

100% legend.  What a bloke.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 22, 2023 by wateroftyne

[Oopsdabassist]

I bought a Jazz pre from John many moons ago, Given I don't live that far from him he invited me over and I spent a wonderful afternoon in his workshop drinking tea and talking bass and electronics, he let me touch his vintage Fender P bass too, must be worth a fortune, but he wasn't fussed, lovely man!!

Edited August 22, 2023 by Oopsdabassist

[Frank Blank]

Agreed. Having discovered missing springs between the upper and lower knobs of a couple of ACGs that have passed through my hands, I emailed John who sent me out a bag of said springs at no cost. He has also quickly and thoroughly answered a couple of emails about technical stuff too. The more I use small, often one-person, outfits the happier I am, usually a quicker response and much more helpful than bigger companies/brands who are often simply varying shades of indifferent. I have had great service/advice from...

 

John East

Newtone Strings

Effectrode

Lusithand

ACG (of course)

Grace Design

Rob Allen

 

 

[Geek99]

He was absolutely brilliant when I was enquiring about piezo bridges for a jazz bass 

[Frank Blank]

9 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

He was absolutely brilliant when I was enquiring about piezo bridges for a jazz bass 

 

Same here. Most of my basses are piezo and he gave a lot of valuable advice.

[Geek99]

He’s a member here, someone should tag him

[TheGreek]

Great that we acknowledge good service not just winge about poor service like some other forums/ fora.

 

 

[gafbass02]

I’ve had a few dealings with him too, and he’s been nothing but a gent and a legend every time.